Miami City Ballet Brings Coppélia Back to Life

Long before Julie "Catwoman" Newmar played a robot in the short-lived '60s TV sitcom My Living Doll (episodes of which have just been released on DVD, if you're into that sort of thing), another, different kind of mechanized gal was breaking somebody's heart. Her name? Coppélia.

She was the creation of one toymaker/mad scientist (aren't they all?), Dr. Coppélius. Both characters originated in an 1870 romantic comic ballet titled Coppélia, written by maestro Arthur Saint-Léon (who also did the choreography) and Charles Nuitter, with music by Léo Delibes.

This weekend, the beautiful automaton that Saint-Léon and Nuitter built comes back to life in the Miami City Ballet's revival of Coppélia, which caps the company's 26th season.

Coppelia's protagonist, Franz, has his heart

set on Swanilda. But he can't help but become infatuated with Coppélia, who's

such a doll. Dr. Coppélius, meanwhile, harbors devious plans for the

young man: He wants to transfer Franz's soul to his masterpiece and have her

come alive.

Swanilda is no forest flower, however, and so she goes to

fight for her man. Spoiler alert: She dresses up as the doll and rescues

Franz. The ending is a happy one, with the flesh and blood lovers

reunited. Everyone in town dances, and even the good doctor comes out

winning something too.

For Mary Carmen Catoya, one of the MCB principal dancers who will be

playing the role of Swanilda (alternating with Jeanette Delgado),

Coppélia brings back heartwarming memories that date back to her early

teens in Venezuela.

"I had danced Coppélia, the Vicente Nebrada version, in Caracas, when I

was 14 or 15," shares the 38-year-old dancer after a long day of

rehearsals. "I played the role of Swanilda in a production that was held

in honor of Margot Fonteyn, who liked it, at the Teresa Carreño

Theater."

Catoya, who danced with the Cleveland

Ballet and the Ballet Contemporáneo de Caracas before coming to the

Miami City Ballet in 1999, says that to inhabit that character at such different stages of her life is a

thrilling experience.

"A dancer doesn't know how enjoyable maturity can be until she's

stepping on it," she explains. "Now, I am having even more fun playing

Swanilda. She is a girl who is spoiled, capricious, playful, but she's